Im Just Another One
by mixed-up-head
Summary: About The Maine, A Rocket to the Moon, etc.
1. Chapter 1

It's the first week of summer. I'm driving from Worcester to Braintree, Massachusetts. It's hot today, probably the hottest it has been. My clothes are sticking to my body and the AC in my car has been broken for a while now, which makes everything worse. All the windows and my car are down, "All By Yourself," by Austin Gibbs is blasting through my speakers. As I drive over the speed limit, I ignore all middle fingers, dirty looks, and honks from other cars. I'm visiting Braintree to visit my best friend, Nick. My clock reads 1:42 in the afternoon. About twenty minutes to go...

...

I drive into Nick's town and laugh to myself. I drive past the park where Nick and I shared our first kiss in the second grade, the ice cream shop where I got my period for the first time ever while I had Nick with me, the grocery store where him and I buy boxes and boxes of Twinkies and sit out front and talk about life, and all the other memories we've shared as we've watched eachother grow up.

...

I pull up into the Santino driveway. From the corner of my eye, I see something moving up and down. I focus my attention to it and see Angus jumping up and down inside the door waiting to greet me. I step out of the car and lose my balance. Rubbing my tired eyes and pushing my sunglasses to the top of my messy hair, I hear a familiar voice calling my name.

"CLAUDIA! Look how beautiful you are! Agh, you've got to stop growing up!"

"Mama Santino, I've missed you so much!" I reply as I practically run into her big bear hug.

"You should just move in here. Nicholas is so lonely here. And besides, you're practically family!" She laughs.

"Hah you know I would," I smile. She's always been the coolest adult I've had in my life, ever since the first grade.

"Where is that lazy boy? He's been sleeping all day! NIIIICHOLASSSS!"

Nick opens the porch door and steps out wearing a Tom Petty t-shirt and Harry Potter pj pants. His orange hair is sticking out in every direction and he's rubbing his eyes to avoid the bright sun.

"Goodmorning Sunshine," I say sarcastically with a huge smile on my face.

"Hey Claudia, I've missed you so much ah!" He pulls me into a hug and lifts me off the ground as he spins me in a circle. I giggle. My nose is pressed up against his shirt as I embrace his smell, cologne mixed with some smell he's always had that I can never quite put my finger on. All I know is, he smells amazing.

He steps back and flashes me a smile.

"Nicholas get her bags from the trunk, her and I have catching up to do."

"But Ma-" he cries

She scowls at him and he sighs. She puts her arm around my shoulders and leads me up the porch stairs as I look back at Nick struggling. I laugh.


	2. Chapter 2

We walk in and I smell food cooking, you never go hungry in the Santino house.

"Are you hungry?" She asks with a hopeful look.

"Starved," I say with a smile as I rub my belly.

"Good!" She cheers. "I'm almost done with the cooking. How's your boyfriend?"

Boyfriend. My boyfriend. Garrett Nickelsen. Him and I met when I was 19. When I graduated high school, I didn't want to jump into college right away. Nick's band, A Rocket to the Moon was touring with The Maine, and I was always a huge fan of them. Nick asked if I wanted to join him on tour just for fun, I said yes. I officially met Garrett when I was struggling to get my suitcase out of the bottom of the bus. After a lot of pulling, I flew backwards and knocked someone over.

**Flashback**

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" I yelled. "Oh my God, are you okay?"

When he finally lifted his head, I almost fainted.

"Hahaha, I'm fine." Garrett replied, shaking his shirt that was now covered in Coca-Cola that I had just made him spill all over himself.

"Ah I can't believe I just did that!"

"Don't even worry," he smiles. "You're the girl that came with Nick right?"

"Yep, that's me." I smile, still feeling guilty about the Coke.

"Oh cool, are you guys, like, "together?"" He makes invisible quotation marks in the air with his hands.

"Oh, nope. Just best friends since forever. You know, two peas in a pod." I laugh embarrassed. Two peas in a pod, what the hell was I thinking?

He smiles his adorable little smile and replies, "Well, I'm gonna go get cleaned up." As he points to his now stained shirt.

"Haha okay, sorry again. See you around." I say, obviously trying too hard to look cute.

"I sure hope so," He smiles.

….There goes my heart.

**End of Flashback**

"He's really good, just busy with the band and everything you know?" I reply to her, trying my hardest not to look too sad.

"Well that's wonderful. I should probably go finish cooking. You and I will talk more later." She winks and turns her back to go back to the kitchen.

I had lied to her. Garrett and I had been fighting, off and on. We still loved each other more than life, it was obvious, but we've been having problems. He was mad at me that I was visiting Nick. Garrett had asked me if I could fly out to Arizona to have just him and I time. Knowing how I can't keep a job, I haven't had the money to buy any plane tickets, and hardly had enough money for gas just to Braintree. I can't remember half the fights I have with Garrett. We always end up making up after a day or a few.

I try to shake it off and just remember I'm here to spend time with my best friend. I start looking over all the pictures I've seen a million times in their living room. Pictures of Nick and I when we had our first playdate, a picture of when him and i lost of two front teeth, a picture of Nick at his first concerts when he was just starting out, baby pictures, everything. We'd met when I moved to Braintree and into the same first grade class as him. We became friends almost instantly. We've been there for everything. Heartbreaks, awkward stages, embarrassing moments, you name it. I've seen all of his musical phases. When he wanted to be a rapper and tried that out, his interesting techno/autotune times, and even now when he met the old Rocket and the new members of Rocket.

I jumped a little when I hear the door shutting loudly behind me. I turn around and see that Nick finally made it up the porch and into the door with all my heavy luggage. I smile at him.

"Let me go shower and then we'll chill and go out for a BFRD." He gets all excited.

"A what..?" I laugh all confused.

"A best friend reunion dinner!" He cheers.

"Sounds good," I smile. "Hurry your ass up then!"

He solutes me like I'm a drill sergeant and quickly runs up the stairs.


	3. Chapter 3

The sun is setting but it's not fully dark yet. Nick and I are driving, looking for a random place to eat. We're driving in my car, but he volunteered to drive. The windows are all rolled down and we're blasting Taylor Swift and both singing so loud, completely out of pitch.

He sings along…

"_You are the best thing, that's ever been miiiiiiiine,"_

And points at me while singing it. I laugh so hard and blow him a kiss. He's like the perfect brother I never had.

We find a bar that's on the side of the street and settle on that. We pick a two person table tucked back in the corner, but surrounded by obnoxious men yelling about the football game.

"Hey guys! I'm Christie, I'll be your server for tonight! Can I get you guys some drinks?" The waitress asks us, being way too happy.

When she brings out of drinks, Nick copies her voice exactly, I choke on my drink.

"Cheers to being best friends forever." He smiles.

"And ever and ever and ever." I add with a smile. We clink our drinks together and take a sip.

"I miss Braintree…I miss YOU." I frown. "Worcester sucks."

"I know right. You need to move back, stupid college. I only got my mom and dad here."

Our food comes and we continue talking and catching up. After dinner we end up driving to Blockbuster. We walk down the aisles talking about all the movies we pass, cheesy ones, good ones, sad ones. We settle on none other than The Notebook. Nick and I always rent it and watch it, and always end up crying together. He is sensitive, I love it. We stop at the grocery store before going home and get a box of Twinkies and some mint chocolate chip ice cream.

When we're back in the car, we continue talking even though the music is still blasting loud of my iPod on shuffle. The next song that came on my iPod was "I Will Follow You Into the Dark," by Death Cab for Cutie. We both look at each other and laugh. Nick and I slow danced to this together when we went to our high school's prom, got bored, and decided to have our own prom, just him and I, in my backyard. This song came on and he asked me to dance.

We pull into the driveway of his house and the song is still playing. He runs over to my side to open the door.

He takes my hand, "Shall we dance?" He asks in a British accent.

I laugh, "Oh, Nicholas. I would be honored." Copying the exact accent he did.

**Nick's POV**

When I walked outside in my attractive pajamas, I tried to hide the extreme excitement on my face when I saw Claudia. Even though I'd seen her a few months before for a short time during Spring Break, she got even more gorgeous now. I went and hugged her and picked her up, spinning her around. She laughed, and oh boy that laugh, it was something.

My mom made me get her luggage, which only made me mad because they were in the house talking about who knows what without me. When I came inside, I scared her and it made me laugh.

"Let me go shower and then we'll chill and go out for a BFRD." I said, as more of a statement then a question.

"A what..?" She asks, really confused.

"A best friend reunion dinner!"

"Sounds good," she says with a smile. "Hurry your ass up then!"

I salute her and run up the stairs, excited that we're going to dinner.

….

When I'm in the shower, I sing my own band's song, "On Your Side," because it seemed to explain my situation well at the moment.

…...

When I'm driving her car, we're blasting Taylor Swift with the windows down, singing horribly.

"_You are the best thing, that's ever been miiiiiiiine,"_

I sing along as I point and smile at her. We eat dinner and I made Claudia laugh a lot, score. I drive us to Blockbuster and we search around for movies. We settle on The Notebook, we always watch it and she knows I always cry, but so does she. We are driving and she starts talking about Garrett. When they first started dating, I wasn't able to talk to her for a few weeks, just couldn't handle that it was _him_. I've now gotten used to it but I still don't like it much.

I drive us to the grocery store. We walk in and I pick up a box of Twinkies. She raises her eyebrow at me. I respond,

"Tradition," and smile.

She smiles back, "Nick, you are the best."

I roll my eyes and sarcastically say "duh," as I laugh

We get some ice cream and leave. When we're back in the car and talking over the loud music, we both fall silent when "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" comes on shuffle. I look over at her and she's already looking at me. We start laughing so hard. We danced to this at our prom. Well, prom part 2, when we got bored and went to her backyard to dance just the two of us.

The song is still playing when we pull into my driveway. I run around the car and open her door.

"Shall we dance?" I ask in a horrible fake British accent.

"Oh, Nicholas. I would be honored." She copies the accent and smiles.

We spin and dance and do that for a while. She rests her head on my shoulder. I start singing the song softly into her ear.

In that moment, I came to conclusion, after all these years of not knowing it was true or not, I finally realized, I have been in absolutely in love with Claudia since I first met her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Claudia's POV(again)**

Nick and I went to sleep after watching the movie. We fell asleep in his bed, side by side. It wasn't weird for us because we'd done it since we were little when we had our little sleepovers.

I wake up at a random time during my sleep. Nick is hogging most of the bed, snoring really loud. I can't fall back asleep so I look around. I look at all the guitars hanging on his walls and his messy clothes that are sitting all around the room. I look over at Nick. I stare at the star tattoo that's on his hand that is about 4 inches form my face, and realize I need to make him move over. He is hogging the entire bed, good luck to the girl he marries…

"Nick, move over asshole!" I yell in a whisper as I try to shove his frozen body.

"Hmmmmph," he mumbles, not waking up. He turns his head and rolls the other way.

He still didn't leave a lot more room so my last choice was to sleep on the ground. I take my pillow and steal the blankets that lay on top of him; he deserves to be cold since he took the whole bed. As soon as I lay my head down, I seemed to have fallen asleep.

…..

I wake up and look at the clock, 11:53 am. I sit up and look at the bed that Nick should have been still sleeping on but he was gone. I slip on sweats to go over my shorts and throw my hair into a messy bun. I walk out and hear the TV on downstairs. When I walk down the stairs, I see it's his dad, Bernie, switching off between reading the paper and watching the news that was on. He smiles at me.

"Long time, no see."

"I know hah, how've you been?" I ask.

"Great! Nick is making pancakes."

I walk into the kitchen and see Nick has flour on his pajamas and spilled around the kitchen.

"Aren't you up early?"

"Well yes, today I got up early because Chef Nicholas is making a gourmet breakfast." He smirks.

"Well yum." I sit down at the table and watch him curse as he messes up and finally finish the cooking.

**Nick's POV**

I wake up and realize I'm freezing. Claudia's not on the bed but I hear her mumbling in the sleep. I look to the ground and see her sprawled out and drooling on my pillow, cute. I see the clock and it says 10:27. I decide to get up and make breakfast.

…

I decide on making pancakes, even though I always end up never fully cooking them. I've burnt myself for the millionth time on the griddle by the time Claudia comes downstairs. She sits down and I soon finish making the pancakes. We get out butter, nutella, peanut butter, sprinkles, syrup, and icing to put on our pancakes.

"What should we do today?" I ask with my mouth full.

"Who knows, let's just walk around places." She laughs at my grossness. "But before we do anything, I'm gonna call Garrett. We haven't talked since our last little fight."

"You didn't tell me you guys got in a fight." I say, confused.

"Well yeah, he was mad that I came to visit you instead of fly out to Tempe to see him. Plane flights are just so damn expensive." She says sounding angry.

"Well he knows you and I are best friends. And yeah, very expensive."

We finish eating and clean up our mess we made from breakfast. We end up having a water fight when she "accidentally" threw a wet sponge at me. She then leaves after that and goes to call Garrett. I sit down at the table, mad.


	5. Chapter 5

**Claudia's POV**

"_riiiiiiiiing…"_

"_riiiiiiiiing…"_

"_riiiiiiiiing…"_

"_Hey this is Garrett. I can't get to the phone right now, obviously. Leave a message and I'll call you back. Peace."_

That's the fourth time I've called and I've texted him a lot more. He should be awake by now. I keep thinking he's so mad at me that he's never going to talk to me again. I sigh, look in the mirror, and try to put on a smile.

I walk out to see Nick swinging his key around his finger and whistling. He's wearing an orange button up shirt with a vest over it, skinny jeans rolled up at the bottom, and a pair of dark blue Toms. I regret not trying harder on my outfit. I settled on a sweatshirt, jeans, and flip flops. My hair is still a complete mess, oh well.

We get in the car and his band's song, "Like We Used To," is playing.

"Oh wow, they're really good." He says sarcastically.

"Extremely, I heard the singer is cute. But I heard he tries to be the next Elvis with his hair…how weird." I say sarcastically. I look at him and smile.

We change the artist to This Providence on shuffle. We start singing along to "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing." Nick knows every word perfectly. He surprised me by pulling into a Barnes and Noble Booksellers. He knows I love bookstores. We get coffee and find a random aisle. We pick up a random books and sit down in the aisle next to each other. I try to read but he keeps making me laugh as he reads lines of the book in funny voices.

"Nick, everyone is looking at us! Shut up!" I laugh.

"Maybe you should stop laughing so loud then!" He mimics my laugh, which of course makes me laugh even harder.

I swat at his arm lightly. He slides off his shoes and places them next to himself. I stare at the tattoos on his feet. I love tattoos, they all tell their own little story.

All of a sudden, I get a horrible smell in my nose.

"NICK! Is that your FEET?"

He doesn't respond, all he does is laugh like crazy.

"Nick!" I say in between my laughs. "You are gross!" I smile.

"You love it," he winks.

I rest my head on his shoulder and smell his cologne again.

"You're a great best friend."

He doesn't respond. We just sit there reading, listening to each other's breaths of air.

**Nick's POV**

When we get in the car, my bands song "Like We Used to," is on the radio.

"Oh wow, they're really good." I say jokingly.

"Extremely, I heard the singer is cute. But I heard he tries to be the next Elvis with his hair…how weird." She says sarcastically. She looks at me and smiles.

Another thing I love about Claudia, she actually gets my sense of humor. Other girls just say "ha," and roll their eyes.

I sing louder than my voice on the radio and she joins in.

I pull the car into Barnes and Noble parking lot. She loves bookstores, especially the smell of new books. She's so weird, but she's exciting.

We get coffee and sit in an aisle. I make her mad cause she can't concentrate on her reading because I keep reading lines from the book I'm reading in weird voices, but she ends up laughing really hard.

I take off my shoes…

"NICK! Is that your FEET?"

I start laughing so hard, my stomach began to hurt. I knew these shoes smelled bad.

"Nick!" She yells in between her laughs. "You are gross!" She smiles.

"You love it," I wink.

She rests her head on my shoulder and sighs.

"You're a great best friend." She whispers

If only she knew, I'm thinking:

_I wish we were more than that._


	6. Chapter 6

_**One Week Later…**_

**Claudia's POV**

I've been at Nick's for a week and a half. We're sitting at the table looking through old pictures.

"I think I've sort of overstayed…"

"No way!" Nick yells. "I love having you here."

I smile, "well I love being here. But I think I should go back home and make sure I wasn't robbed or anything." I smirk.

"Fine." He makes a puppy dog face.

I get up from my seat and go and sit on his lap sideways to hug him.

"We should just get a place. A best friend clubhouse where we can have sleepovers every night." I whisper in his ear.

"That's a wonderful idea!" he smile stretches from ear to ear.

"Haha I know, well I'm going to get packed and try to call Garrett again." Garrett still hasn't answered any of my texts of calls. I've called probably 36 times.

I walk into Nick's room and look around. Both of our clothes are everywhere. I've been wearing his sweatshirts and shirts lately because I realized I didn't pack enough clothes. I sort through, observing each one because now I can't even remember whose are whose.

….

I finish packing an hour or so later. I head downstairs and open the front door to put my bags in the trunk. When I walk out, I see my car filled with balloons. Nick.

"You suck, now I'm not going to be able to drive!" I say as I walk inside to hug him.

"Good, that's the plan."

I hit his arm lightly.

"I really do want to stay. Braintree is perfect, well with you. But I think I should get back into reality."

He sighs. "Well, we're going on tour soon. You should come."

I jump up and down and say, "Ah yes! I promise I will."

"Pinky promise?" He sticks out his pinky.

"Pinky promise." I say, hooking my pinky into his.

I walk and find the rest of the family and hug and say our goodbyes. Nick's mom started crying. I pet Angus and rub his belly saying, "Oh puppy I'm gonna miss you," In the voice you use when you talk to pets.

I walk back to the front door and see Nick standing there still, looking sad and messing with his bracelets. I pull him into a tight hug. He squeezes me so hard I can barely breathe.

"I love you, you crazy small person." He sounds like he's about to cry. But I can't blame him because I'm about to also.

"And I love you more, you awkward skinny person." He squeezes my sides when I say that, he knows I'm ticklish.

We finally pull apart and I walk out to my car. I wave goodbye and begin my road trip back home, even though this place felt more like home to me now.

**Nick's POV **

Claudia's leaving today. I haven't been able to tell her anything I wanted to. How I've always loved her. How I can be better than Garrett. How I'll treat her right.

She goes to pack and I put all the pictures we were sorting through of us away. I'm not sure how long she'll be packing, but I get a perfect idea.

…

I grab my keys and sprint out to the car. I drive fast, drumming on the steering wheel, excited about my plan. I'm not sure if it will work, but even if it doesn't, it will make her smile. I pull into the Party City parking lot and unbuckle before I've even pulled into a parking space. I walk in quickly.

"Hi." I say to the person behind the counter.

It's a man that looks like he's in his 30's, eats too much and hasn't shaved in weeks. He looks up from his magazine and rolls his eyes. He sets the magazine down and walks over to me.

"What can I help you with today?" He says in a boring tone.

"Um, I was wondering if I could have about 20 pink balloons." That's her favorite color.

He gives me a look as if I'm crazy but goes over to the machine to start blowing them up. I sit and wait and watch, observing all the people that had come in. I cross my leg and start pulling strings out of my Toms that so badly need to be thrown away.

It feels like forever when the guy says, "Okay here's 20 pink balloons."

I hand the money and walk out looking like an idiot. I barely make it through the door of the store. Good thing I brought her car in the first place because I don't think I'd be able to put them in my car, take them out, and then move them to her car.

I spend the whole ride home punching balloons away that get in my face or hit me. When I pull into the driveway and walk in the house, she's still packing.

I open the fridge and pull out an orange Fanta and went to sit outside in the back.

….

It's been a while so I decide to go inside. I open the door and see that she's finally done packing, she already put her bags in the trunk so that means she saw my surprise.

"You suck, now I'm not going to be able to drive!" She smiles and walks to hug me

"Good, that's the plan." I smile and hug back.

She hits my arm lightly.

"I really do want to stay. Braintree is perfect, well with you. But I think I should get back into reality."

I sigh "Well, we're going on tour soon. You should come."

She jumps up and down with a smile on her face. "Ah yes! I promise I will."

"Pinky promise?" I stick out my pinky.

"Pinky promise." She smiles, hooking her pinky into mine.

She goes to say goodbye to the rest of my family. I sit there spinning my bracelets around my wrist thinking.

_Should I tell her?_

_What if I never get her?_

_What if she doesn't even think like that?_

_I'm so stupid. She has a BOYFRIEND!_

I snap out of it when she comes back. She pulls me into a tight hug.

"I love you, you crazy small person." I whisper. I'm about to cry. God, man up Nick. What the fuck.

"And I love you more, you awkward skinny person." She whispers back.

I watch her get in her car full of balloons and drive away. 2 things sucked in that moment. Number 1: My plan to make her stay with the balloons didn't work. And number 2: Our "I love you"s had two totally different meanings.


	7. Chapter 7

**Claudia's POV**

I fumble and drop the keys as I walk up to the door of my apartment. I open the door, home sweet home. There's a bag sitting at the end of the hallway that I recognize. I stand there, confused and not sure if I should call out "Hello" or something.

Garrett turns the corner with nothing but boxers on. He's eating toast with jelly.

"Welcome home!" he manages to get out of his mouth full with the toast. He shoves the rest of the toast into his mouth.

I run into his arms and jump for a hug, wrapping my legs around his body.

"I thought you were mad at me." I say as I kiss every part of his face and neck.

"I can't stay mad at you forever." He smiles as he runs his fingers through my hair.

I step back and take a look at him. His messy hair is all over. I pull him in for a deep kiss that lasts forever.

"I missed you so much. I hate fighting with you." I say out of breath from our intense kiss as I put my forehead against his.

"I love you so much and never want to fight again." He kisses my nose and I smile.

"I'm so sorry, for everything. I just wanted to visit Nick."

"I know, I'm so sorry. I understand he's your best friend. I guess I'm just… never mind." He shakes his head.

"Tell me!" I say as I wrap my arms around him and put my head onto his warm chest.

"I was just jealous… You guys have this relationship that's so hard to find and I feel like it's better than ours." He sounds sad.

"Garrett Daniel Nickelsen. You're my everything. Yeah, he's my best friend but you're so much more. I can't even find the words to explain how much you mean to me. I am completely in love with you and only you." I sigh and hug him tighter. I wish he didn't feel that way. But there's this sick feeling inside of me that is happy he's jealous, it shows he cares a lot.

He kisses the top of my hair and swoops me up into his arms wedding style. He walks us over to the couch and sits down. I sit there in his lap tracing the tattoo on his forearm that says "Make Your Line," with my fingers.

We sit there for a while, just soaking up everything.

"I need to shower." I whisper.

"Want me to shower with you?" he asks.

"Of course." I smile and kiss his lips softly. I stand up and pull him up as well. I hold his hand as we walk to the bathroom, losing clothing before we even get through the door.


	8. Chapter 8

**Claudia's POV(still)**

After our shower together, we ended up falling asleep, even though it was only 4 in the afternoon.

I wake up in Garrett's arms. He's still sleeping. I watch as his chest rises and falls. He's only in his boxers again and I lay my cheek to the side of his warm chest. I look down at myself and notice I'm only in a bra and underwear. My hair is still wet from the shower. I lift his arm from around me and set it to his side. I push myself up onto my hands and knees. I lean down and kiss his lips, then kiss both of his eyelids.

The closest pieces of clothing on the ground were sweats and a sweatshirt of Garrett's. I put both of them on and throw my hair into a bun. I turn around before I walk out of the room and look at Garrett. I am so lucky.

I walk into the kitchen and grab the keys and my phone off the counter. As I walk out the door, I click my phone and see I have a missed called from Nick. I click on the missed call and hit "recall." I wait…

Two rings later and Nick picks up the phone up.

"Nicholas Bernard up in huuuuur," he says as he picks up the phone.

I laugh, "Hi Nicholas Bernard."

"How was the drive? I was worried because you didn't call sooner."

"The drive was eh. Yeah sorry I didn't call earlier. Garrett surprised me at my apartment and we ended up falling asleep." I say as I wait for a response.

He doesn't answer.

"Nick? Are you still there?" I say into the phone. I knew he was still there, I heard his heavy breathing. So, I guess that was a stupid question.

"Yeah, here. Hi. Yeah, Garrett. Cool. I'm busy. Writing music. Talk to ya later." And with that, he hangs up. I sit there with the phone still at my ear, confused and hurt of what just happened. I still have the phone to my ear when the "Beep beep beep beep. If you'd like to make a call…" starts talking. I hang up, shrug, and walk out the door.

I get into the car and click on Taking Back Sunday under artists on my iPod. I drive until I reach the movie store. I get and walk in down the aisles. I walk and find "Fight Club," Garrett's favorite movie, and walk to the section "TV Shows," and pick out a season of The Office. I walk to the front to check them out and pick up four boxes of watermelon Sour Patch Kids.

The drive home was a blur. I'm still trying to process what happened with Nick.

I open the door with my bag full of stuff and hear Garrett singing "So Alive" by Ryan Adams somewhere in the apartment. I smile, his singing voice was amazing. I turn the corner and see him pretending to air guitar. I laugh and he looks embarrassed when he sees me standing there.

"I love you so much." I smile and set the bag onto the counter.

"I love you so much _more_!" He puts emphasis on the "more" as he picks me up in hug.

"You're perfect." I whisper into his ear.

He pulls my head back kisses me.

"Far from it." He says with his eyes closed as he rests his forehead onto mine.

"Well you are to _me._" I say. He pulls me into a kiss again.

I walk away and he smacks my butt. I laugh and start pulling off the sweatshirt I'm wearing to put on a t-shirt.

"Claudia," he says.

I turn around.

"You're beautiful." He continues.

I smile and run up to him to give him a kiss again before I go change the rest of my outfit.

I walk into my room and pick up a pair of his boxers. I put them on and throw on a This Century shirt.

"What did you get?" he asks from the other room. I can hear him rustling through the bag I had just brought home.

I didn't hear him walk into the room but I turn around and see him holding up everything I had just bought.

"Oh my god, you are the most amazing girlfriend in the world."

I smile and we go put the movie in, eating our sour patch kids.

As we sit there on the couch, I remember something.

"Why did you not answer my calls or texts?" I say, a little too angry.

"I lost my phone. I have no idea where it went." He responds, not taking his eyes off the screen.

"Why didn't you call from a different phone? You know my number."

He finally looks over at me. "Because I wanted to surprise you in person. And besides, apologies are so much better in person."

I sigh and rest my head on his shoulder. "You're right. I'm so glad you came."

He puts his fingers under my chin and turns my head to face him. "I'm glad too." He brings his lips to mine.

We watch the rest of the movie, sitting and holding hands. After that, we watch the entire DVD of The Office. We see the clock, 2:23 am.

"I'm not even tired." I say.

"Me neither." He says as he stares at my face.

I laugh, "What are you doing?"

"Just observing you." He smiles.

I pull him in for a kiss, which we had done a lot tonight.

We sit there, making out on the couch.

He then stands up, we're still making out and he picks me up. I wrap my legs around him and he starts walking us to my bedroom. He begins to kiss my neck. He kicks and slightly trips over a pair of shoes that are on the ground.

I hear him mutter, "shit" on my neck when he does that, I guess it hurt.

I laugh and he lays me down on the bed. He crawls on top of me and we continue making out. I put my hands under his shirt and lift it off over his head. He pulls away and begins taking off the boxers I was wearing of his. When he finished that, he pulls my shirt off. He kisses my stomach and I feel him warm breathe on my skin and he brings his lips back to mine.

And then….

You get what happened next.


	9. Chapter 9

**Claudia's POV(still)**

I wake up in the morning and Garrett is already up. I walk out into the kitchen and see he's making waffles. I go up behind him and hug his waist. He dips his finger in the batter bowl and taps my nose with his batter-covered finger.

"Thank you very much, jerk," I smile.

He turns around and licks it off my nose with his tounge. I laugh and rub the rest away with the back of my hand.

I walk over to my iPod speaker and turn it on. Before I push play, I make sure the volume is at 50. I push play and the sound of guitar starts playing through the apartment. Garrett and I start singing and dancing around the kitchen to "Skinny Love." Bon Iver is perfect. We start swaying and hoping, doing dance moves that suck. I laugh as he holds my finger and twirls me in a circle.

"_I tell my love to wreck it all, cut out all the ropes and let me fall. __My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my." _He sings along perfectly, swaying side to side as he dances. I laugh and close my eyes as he pulls me to his chest and sways us together, back and forth. I look up at him and give him a kiss and pull away.

I let Garrett finish his cooking and I sit down onto the kitchen floor, leaning my back against the cabinet. I was starving so I wanted to eat badly. I look up and down his entire body, catching every little detail. He's wearing his "Empire Strikes Back" Star Wars t-shirt that he loves and boxers as his bottoms. His hair is all messy, but I love it that way. He's wearing a bunch of bead bracelets and string bracelets on his wrists that fans have given him at concerts in the past, I smile. I stare at his "1990" tattoo on his arm.

I blank out and forget the world for a second. I sit there, thinking about Nick. I had no idea what happened on the phone yesterday. I didn't realize that Garrett had just said, "Aaaaall done. These are going to be the best waffles you've ever tasted." He smiles.

I stand up; turn the volume down on my iPod so we can hear each other talk while we eat. He sets down both of our plates onto the table across from each other. I open the fridge and pull out orange juice and milk and carry them to the table. He stands there behind my chair. He waits for me to walk over to him. I stand there waiting, confused, until I see him pull out my chair and signal me to sit down, so old-fashioned.

He takes his fork and cuts a piece of waffle. He reaches across the table with the fork in hand and the waffle about to fall off, giving me a "try it," look. I take a bite and smile. It tasted so good.

"You're right; these are the best waffles I've ever tasted."

I grab the syrup bottle sitting on the table beside my drink and cover my stack of waffles in it, every last inch.

"I've decided it." He says.

I stare at him, chewing slowly, confused of what he means. I wait for a response.

"I'm quitting music and becoming a chef. I'm just too good." He smirks.

"Ha-ha, very funny. You're not THAT good." I wink.

He makes a joking pouty face. I push my chair back and lean my body over the table, trying not to get syrup on my shirt.

"Just kidding," I whisper with a smile.

I'm still smiling by the time we're kissing. I pull back after some seconds and sit back down to finish eating. He smiles.

"So the band is going on tour in about two weeks." He says while he chews.

"Oh, yeah! I forgot about that."

"Are you going to come?" He asks. Sitting there with a smile on his face, his somewhat begging face.

"Of course I'm coming! I'll miss you too much to have you be on tour for weeks and me not see you." I smile.

We sit there in silence for a little, still listening to Bon Iver that's still playing quietly. It wasn't awkward silence, just the kind that feels like everything is perfect.

"_Sold, I'm Ever  
>Open ears and open eyes<br>Wake up to your starboard bride  
>Who goes in and then stays inside<br>Oh the demons come, they can subside" is what I hear._

I remember something and feel bad about telling Garrett it.

I speak up anyway. "I forgot…Nick asked me to go on tour with them. I promised him." I say, feeling bad when the words came out of my mouth.

He pauses and sits there; I can't explain the look on his face. He finally talks and says,

"Well, we're touring with them anyway. I forgot to tell you that. So.., looks like you're coming for sure." He smiles but it looks more like a forced smile.

I feel bad. He told me he was jealous of Nick and I's friendship. I feel like he thinks it's more than a friendship, even though it's not like that at all.

I sit there staring at him, trying to smile. I didn't notice we'd both now finished our waffles. I push my chair out and go to his side of the table and sit on his lap. I wrap my arms around his neck and stare at his perfect face.

"I'm sorry, baby. He and I are just friends. I'm sorry I even brought that up." I say softly.

He doesn't look at me; he just looks out the big window that's next to the table.

"I just…" He pauses, finding words to say. He finally looks me in the eye. "I think Nick likes you. As more than a friend. It's written all over his face when he's with you. I just don't want to lose you to him. You're so important to me and I just… I can't have that happen."

I sit there, staring at his eyes. I can't think of what to say. I loved Nick, but not at all in the same way I loved Garrett. I had Garrett and he was all that mattered to me.

"I feel horrible. Our last fight was because of me going to see Nick and I didn't even listen to you or think that this was how you felt. But Garrett," I pull his face closer to mine. "Nick…he can't do anything or say anything to change this." I move my hand back and forth in the space between us, showing I'm talking about us. "You're…everything. I can't imagine my life without you. I don't feel the way I feel about you with _anyone_ else in this world. Only you."

I sit there and wait for him to respond. We just stare into each other's eyes. I know I'd hurt his feelings.

"I love you." He whispers.

I sigh, glad that hopefully what I said makes him feel somewhat better. "I love you so much."

He pulls me into a kiss. That kiss, it made me feel like everything was okay.


	10. Chapter 10

**Still**

**A few days later…**

Garrett is leaving today. We spent four days together. We haven't brought up the tour ever since our morning of breakfast. He's going back to Tempe to start rehearsing with the band before it's time to tour. We decided that I'll fly out to Tempe a day before it's time to start the tour shows. The first show is in Texas so we'll be driving from Arizona to there the day after I fly out.

I'm driving Garrett to the airport. We've been holding hands the entire way. Ryan Adams is playing from my iPod and Garrett is on the passenger side quietly singing along and nodding his head to the beats.

I squeeze his hand and he looks over at me.

"I'm going to miss you," I whisper.

"Ugh, I'm going miss you too. But I'll see you in a week and a half, I'll see you soon." He pulls my hand that is intertwined with his and kisses the back of it softly.

"Hah I know." I pause. "That's too long." I look over at him again and smile sadly, trying to still pay attention to the road.

He sits there looking somewhat sad. "I had such a fun four days with you. I wish we just lived together." he sighs.

I smile. That actually sounded like a good idea. But I couldn't take the heat in Arizona and he probably couldn't move in with me or to Massachusetts because of the band.

We get stuck in some traffic and I turn the volume up of Ryan Adams to sing along to, Garrett does the same.

…

We pull up at the airport and there's a bunch of cars parked in the drop off that have all the doors open. Families are standing beside the cars and hugging other people tightly with their eyes closed. I get sad at that sight. There's also people who look happy and are laughing as they say goodbye to people.

I find an open area and turn the car into it. I turn on the blinker. I leave the car running but Garrett and I get out. I unlock the trunk and I go to walk onto the sidewalk as he retrieves his bag. I stand there wishing he didn't have to leave. He closes the trunk and we just stand there, looking at each other, as his hand is resting on the door of the now closed trunk. He does a half smile, drops the duffle bag onto the ground and walks up to me. He wraps his arms around my waist and I wrap mine around his neck tightly, not wanting to ever let go. He lifts me up; my feet aren't touching the ground. We stand there, hugging as he has lifted me off the ground. I run my fingers through his hair, trying to keep that moment in my memory. He sets me down but we don't let go. We finally pull away when an officer clears his throat and says,

"Uhhum, sorry. You're going to have to move your car soon or you'll get a ticket."

All I do is nod at him because if I were to speak right now, the tears would start coming.

"Well," I say, as I look back at Garrett and slightly smile as I stare into his eyes.

"Well," he says also, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear.

I pull him in for a kiss, a long kiss.

Once again, interrupted by the officer as he clears his throat from somewhere around us. His cough was obviously signaling, "Hurry the fuck up! Stupid kids."

We pull away and laugh. He leans his head down and puts his lips to my ear.

"I love you, Claudia." He whispers.

"Garrett, I love you so much." I whisper into his.

He walks over to his bag he had dropped on the ground and throws it over his shoulder. He walks up to me and kisses my forehead, then starts heading for the door of the airport. He turns around right before he walks through and looks at me.

He points to his eye, as he mouths the letter "I." Then, he points to his heart as mouths, "heart." And lastly, points his finger straight to me, and mouths, "you."

I smile sadly. I mouth the words, "I love you," back to him. And with that, he turns around and walks through the doors.

….

I play my music loud as I drive back, but don't sing along. I feel too lonely to sing.

I drive and drive, hoping Garrett has a safe flight and worrying about what could go wrong. The thing that could make me a little happier at the moment would be a bookstore. I drive until I find one and go inside. I pick up "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," by Stephen Chobsky and go to the cashier to purchase it. I get in line at the Starbucks they have there and get coffee. I walk to the back of the store and sit down one of the couches that have in there.

…

I ended up falling asleep. I wake up to an about 17 year old boy who works there and is poking my shoulder to wake me up. I rub my eyes.

"Uh, hi. It's 20 minutes past closing time." He says.

"Wh-what time is it?" I say groggily.

He looks at his watch and answers, "10:22."

Geeeeez. I drove Garrett to the airport at about four and had gotten here at about 5:45. I sit up on the couch and grab my book that was thrown on the ground opened on a page. I pick up my empty coffee cup sitting next to the book.

"Sorry about that." I say awkwardly.

"Hah, it's cool." He says. He laughs, probably because I looked like a crazy person sleeping. I throw my empty cup into the trash can and push open the front doors. I walk out to my car and get inside. As I drive, my eyes flutter and I yawn a bunch of times.

I eventually make it home. I open the door to my apartment with my key and go inside, turning on all the lights. I scratch my head and walk to my bedroom.

I fall onto the bed, groaning. I fall asleep, right there; fully clothed, with all the lights on.


	11. Chapter 11

**A week and a half later..**

**Claudia's POV(still)**

This past week has been a blur. I haven't done much. I've done laundry, rented my favorite movies and ate ice cream, read a book, and slept. I'm nervous for the tour but I'm not really sure why. I think it's because Garrett, Nick, and I will all be together for weeks and I'm not quite sure what to do with all this fighting and anger. I'm hoping that since I'm going on the tour it won't make The Maine and A Rocket to the Moon end up hating each other. Nick and I have texted but he hardly responds. When he does answer my texts, it's something like, "K," or, "Ha yeah."

So anyway. My flight is tomorrow. I'm packing today; "Transantlanticism" by Death Cab is playing quietly. My phone vibrates from the nightstand. I stand up and walk over and click the phone. It likes up and reads, "Text Message From: My Little Nicky!" That's the contact Nick changed it to when I was in Braintree. I stared at the screen for a while, not sure if _he_ was actually texting _me _first. This would be the first time in a while.

I slide open the message and it reads:

"Hey dork. Excited to see you. Ready for the tour?"

Oh, cool Nick. Now you act like everything is all okay.

I type back, "Packing now. I'm not sure if you can call this feeling excited. Are you all ready?" and hit send.

A couple minutes later my phone vibrates again and says "Yeah, this tour should be interesting. I'm all ready. My flight is late tonight. Justin should be getting there at around the same time and we're gonna get a hotel room. When are you leaving?"

I respond, "My flight is tomorrow. Staying at Garrett's for the night. Have a safe flight BFF." I add a winky face at the end, because honestly, who says BFF anymore?

**Next Day**

I'm sitting at the gate. I'm listening to music and texting Garrett. There's a large man sitting in the seat next to me who keeps falling asleep and waking back up, mumbling and snoring some. I turn my volume up louder to block the sound out of all the things in the busy airport.

…

The plane's finally at the gate and we're allowed to board. I hand the lady at the counter my boarding pass and she rips off the end, handing it back and smiling, "Have a nice flight."

My seat is 13B. Middle seat, screw my life. I sit in the middle of a teenage looking kid who just plays Angry Birds the entire flight. I watch from the corner of my eye as he keeps killing all the same green pigs except one. The other man next to me is kind of old. He and I don't communicate much, he just asked why I'm going to Arizona and I asked the same back to him. He sits with a newspaper, filling out a crossword puzzle. The flight hasn't been very talkative, which I like because I'm not in the mood.

I put my headphones in my ears and to my surprise, I fall asleep.

….

Garrett is picking me up at the airport. I get off the plane and walk to baggage claim. As I stand there, looking around, my ringtone of, "Come Back Down," by Ivory starts playing. I pull out my phone and Garrett is calling. I press accept.

"I seeeeeeeeee you." He says in a weird high-pitched voice.

"Where? These bags are heavy, I am sooo not carrying them." I say into the phone.

Arms wrap around my waist from behind me. I'm still holding the phone to my ear and I start laughing. I put my phone into my back pocket and turn around. I turn around and see him, smiling huge. I hug Garrett, for the longest time.

I step back and look at him. He's wearing a navy blue and white striped shirt, black skinny jeans with a giant hole in the knee, and all black converses. I smile at him and give him a kiss.

I grab his hand as he rolls my suitcase and leads us to wherever he parked the car.

He walks over and opens my door. I get in and he puts my bags in the trunk and walks over to his side. He parked in a sunny spot so when he gets in, I just stare at him. He looks over at me and his eyes are the bluest I've ever seen. They look perfect. He smiles and kisses me. We start the drive to his house.


	12. Chapter 12

Garrett and I didn't do much last night. We got Wendy's to eat and watched TV, then slept. When Garrett woke me up by kissing my face this morning, the hardest thing to do was get out of that bed. The time difference is hard. I got in the shower and am pretty much asleep as I stand here in the hot water.

I am taking a long shower, and I know Garrett and I have to leave soon to meet the other bands and get on with the tour, but I am too tired right now. I take about a 45 minute shower and walk over to my suitcase as I'm wrapped in my towel. I pick up black capris, a t-shirt, and my black Toms. I throw them all on and walk out of the bathroom and see Garrett sitting at his table eating. He's eating Lucky Charms. He's wearing skinny jeans rolled up at the bottom, a tank top with a sweater on top, and black Toms as well. His hair is sticking up today, it looks so cute. He has his Ray Bans on the top of his head and he smiles as me as he crunches on his cereal. I get a bowl and pour cereal. I add milk and sit at the table.

"Sorry, long shower. I'm so tired. What time is it?"

He looks over at the clock that's on the wall behind me and studies it.

"5:10 am," he smiles. I have no idea how he's so awake right now.

I yawn and eat my cereal.

We finish and grab our bags and bring them out to his car. We were picking up John and Kennedy, Jared and Pat were riding together. We drive to John's house and he and Kennedy walk out laughing. John has on his Kurt Cobain shirt that he loves to death, I roll my eyes and smile, he always wears it. They put their bags in the back and walk over to my door. Kennedy knocks on my window. I open the door and John grabs me into a huge hug. I laugh and hug Kennedy hi. They all go to their sides of the car and I get into the front seat again.

"It's TOOOOOOOOOOOUR TIIIIME!" John yells as he buckles his seat belt.

"FUCK YEAH IT IS!" Garrett screams as he honks the horn a million times.

They three start dancing weirdly in their seats. I just sit there, laughing at how weird they all were.

Kennedy reaches over the seat to me and starts drumming on the top of my head.

"Are you excited? Are you excited? Are you excited?" He shouts.

I laugh and respond, "YES I'M EXCITED NOW STOP YOU ASS!" I smack his hands away.

We talk about the most random stuff on the drive. I plug in my iPod and turn Ivory on. They got the name of their band from their song "Coast of Maine." The song, "Denver," starts playing and Garrett reaches over to turn it up. We all start singing super loud.

Before we know it, we're at the grocery store parking lot that everyone agreed to meet at. All of us jump out of the car as soon as we come to a stop and start greeting everyone.

I walk over to Pat and give him a big hug.

"Rat Boy! I've missed you!"

"Ah, long time no see!" He responds.

We break apart and talk for a little. John comes over and starts talking to Pat so I decide to walk over and greet everyone in A Rocket to the Moon.

Jared is over there talking to them and they all smile at me as they see me coming. Jared holds his arms out and I run to him laughing and give him a huge hug. Jared and I became close on past tours and when he's hung out with Garrett and I. Nick gives me a huge hug right as I pull away from Jared's big hug.

"Niiiick! Missed you BFF, even though I saw you recently." I say.

"Ohhhh I missed you. My house is officially the most boring place now." He says.

"Haha, I'm sorry!"

Nick releases me and I look to the next person who's in the line to greet. It's Justin. He's holding hands with his girlfriend Ashley. She and I had met a couple of times. We've gotten to know each other at the band barbeques. She and Justin were adorable. I hug Justin and hug Ashley. She and I have quick conversation about all the guys and how we're the only girls. Justin focuses her attention back to Ashley and comes from behind after he was talking to Nick to give her a quick kiss on the cheek. I smile at them and turn my body to Halvo.

"Eric Halvorsen. How've you been buddy?"

"I've been good! So excited to be back on tour. And glad you're here!"

I laugh and walk to Andrew and wrap my arms around him. I felt like I hadn't seen any of these guys in a while.

"Did you bring Fifa?" I ask.

"But of course." He laughs and hugs me tighter.

I pull away and join the conversation everyone was having. Garrett comes over and grabs my hand. I look over at him and smile, and squeeze his hand.

I turn my head back and Nick is staring at our hands. He looks up at me.

"Are you okay?" I mouth to him.

He nods and starts talking to Jared. I shrug a little and start talking to Garrett. John interrupts as he yells, "YOOOO!" over all the conversations happening. Everyone looks at him.

"Let's get this tour started, shall we?"

There's a mix of, "Woo-hoo's" and, "Hell yeah's". I lift my drink that Pat just handed me and cheer along. Everyone else lifts theirs up too and cheers some more. I smile and take a sip, hoping the tour wouldn't have any drama.

….

A Rocket to the Moon headed to their bus and I walked with the Maine to theirs. Garrett and I still are hand in hand. We get on and everyone runs to the back to claim bunks.

"I CALL BOTTOM. CALLED IT. MINE." John yells as he jumps on one of the bottom bunks.

"But you're tall." Pat frowns. Pat was so little, I laugh because I knew it'd be hard for him to get up there.

John stares at the floor for a second. "Fine." He gets up. "Sooo not fair," he says in a girl voice.

Pat jumps at him and pulls his face close to John's like he's going kiss him. John sticks his hand in front of Pat's lips and Pat pretends to make out with his hand. Everyone starts laughing and Kennedy goes, "oooooh!"

I look back at Garrett and see he already put his few stuff onto a bunk. He got a bottom, I was happy. Even though there would be enough bunks for myself to have my own, Garrett wanted me to stay with him, and I wanted to also.

He crawls into the bunk and lays down. I stand in the hallway of the bus smiling at him. He pats next to him, wanting me to lay down next to him.

I glance at the front of the bus and see John dancing as Jared is strumming his acoustic guitar quietly. Pat starts yelling sounds that sound like Indian tribe chants that match perfectly with John's dancing. I laugh and look back at Garrett. I take off my shoes right outside the bunk and crawl in with him. I close the curtain and lay my head on his chest. He starts to run his fingers through my hair. We fall asleep as we drive to the first stop, Texas.


	13. Chapter 13

I woke up to the bus coming to a stop. I rub my eyes, probably smearing my make up, and look at Garrett. He didn't wake up from the harsh stop. His mouth is open and he's breathing really heavy. I put my cold hands under his shirt. His eyes shoot open.

"Geez, your hands are like ice." He says as he pushes my hands out of his shirt. I laugh and slide open the curtain and stand up, stretching my arms up in the air and mumbling noises. I look to the front of the bus and all the boys are getting up as well, stretching. John starts humming a Death Cab song and sees me standing there. He gives me a, "sup," nod and I give one back. Jared starts singing loudly and they all walk off the bus to the venue. We still had hours until they were on, but they needed sound check.

I hear, "mmmm," from behind me and turn to see Garrett finally was able to stand up.

"Hello," I smile.

"Hi," He smiles back with his eyes nearly closed. He pulls me in for a hug and then we put on our shoes and walk to the front of the bus. I look out the window and there's only a few fans waiting outside in the line. When we walk out holding hands, the few fans see Garrett and start fangirling and giggling to each other.

"Hi, Garrett." A girl with colored hair and dark make up says to him. He says hi back and asks how it is going.

"Uh-I-um. Wanted to, um, know if I could get a picture with, um, you." She barely manages to get that sentence out, obviously so star struck by Garrett that she can't even talk right.

"Yeah, sure." He smiles. He then looks at me and I squeeze his hand I was holding.

"I'll be inside," I smile at him, then look at the fan and smile at her. She just glares at me, oh silly jealous fans. I still wasn't use to that.

I walk inside and see the guys have drinks and are sitting and standing around talking. I glance at the merch table as I walk to them. Their merch guy already set up his stuff, super-fast. Rocket was running late. I walk up and hear them talking about what song they wanted to cover tonight.

"I think we should do something from Augustana. Everyone loves them." Jared said.

Kennedy mumbled a "Yeah, true."

"But guys, we can play, "Nobody Knows Me at All," so well!" John said.

That was true; John sang songs by The Weepies really well.

I nodded my head, knowing I shouldn't speak my opinion because I wasn't really part of the conversation.

"John has a point." Pat said.

"Well, none of us are really agreeing," Jared said. "But we all really like the song, "Alright" by Pilot Speed, right?"

Everyone in the circle nodded.

"SO IT'S SETTLED! OW,OW, OW, FIRST NIGHT OF TOUR, YEAH." John yells.

Everyone laughs and Kennedy copies his "ow, ow, ow's."

Pat starts doing a funny dance in the middle of the circle. Our attention turns to the people walking in the door when we hear voices. Rocket finally arrived and Garrett is walking in with them and talking. Everyone greets and hugs, even though we all saw each other not too long ago. I smile at Ashley and walk up to her.

"Had enough of them yet?" I ask and laugh.

She laughs, "Not yet, it was mostly quiet on the ride. I was with Justin most of the time but I was watching Eric sleep too."

We both look at Eric who is laughing and mingling with the guys.

"Mouth breather." We say at the same time and start laughing.

She and I keep talking and Justin walks up.

"Hey," He says and smiles at me. He puts his arm around her waist.

"It's time for our sound check, so I'll be back with you later."

She nods and smiles. He pulls her in for a kiss and she starts laughing because he bit her lip as a joke during the middle of it. I smile at them, but realize I'm really awkward just watching so I go over to Garrett and stand beside him. He puts his arm around me.

Nick, who is standing across the circle, smiles at me. I smile back and tune into the conversation.

"I wonder if there will be good-looking fans, who aren't little teenagers. Pat so badly needs to get laid." John says and laughs.

Everyone laughs and I look at Pat as I try not to laugh. He frowns and says, "It's so true."

John looks at me and sees me laughing at Pat. "Oh Claudia," he says. I look over at him and wait. "What about you? Are you and Garrett going to get. it. on?" He says as he makes thrusting motions.

I feel my face turn bright red and everyone laughs. I start laughing too and Garrett pulls his arm that's around my shoulders even tighter.

"None of your business, dick." Garrett says and smiles.

John holds up his hands in front of him as a "geez, geez, calm down," sort of way and smiles.

We hear the beginning of, "Mr. Right" start playing and turn our heads to see A Rocket to the Moon has finally started their sound check. I didn't notice Justin and Ashley finally finished and Ashley was now standing with us.

We watch them finish the song and then the band, Ashley, and I walk into a room that was in the back of the venue. The guys grab beers and start drinking and talking. Garrett hands me one as well and we sit on the slouchy couches that sit against the wall.

Who knows how long we were talking in that room until Halvo and Justin walk into the room.

"We're doooooone," Halvo says in a sing-song sort of way.

All the guys stand up and walk out. Ashley and I stay there, Justin and Ashley cuddle in a little chair in the corner and I start a conversation with Eric, and now Andrew and Nick who had walked in a little after the Maine walked out.

"So," I say. They all look at me. "Fifa tournament tonight? After the show?"

"You know it," Andrew says and smiles.

"Well, be prepared. I'm gonna kick aaaall your asses." I say as I wag my finger around the room to all of them.

"HA!" Eric says.

I raise my eyebrows at him.

"Oh I know you can beat me…but Andrew?" He looks back and forth between us and smiles.

"Well we'll have to see about that." I smile. "And you never know…maybe I've been practicing."

Everyone's silent for a little. Then Nick speaks up.

"I change my bets. I think Claudia could beat Andrew."

"Same," Justin chimes in from the corner.

I start laughing. Eric pats Andrews back and says, "don't worry buddy, I still think you'll beat Claudia."

He looks up at me and smiles. I smile, roll my eyes, and look away.

…

It's 6 pm. Doors are supposed to be opening now but they never usually open on time anyway. Kennedy was having trouble with his guitar so it pushed everything back a little. I went out at the end of their sound check to listen to them rehearse the song, "Alright," that they were covering. It sounded so good.

It's about 45 minutes later and doors are opening. I'm standing on a wall to the side of the venue with Ashley, watching girls, and a few guys, make their way through the people that are also trying to push to the stage. She and I are picking out the people we think will be the, "YOU'RE SO FUCKING SEXY!" yellers, the crowd surfers, the jumpers, and the occasional annoying moshers that get so into it. We laugh when we see a girl that we all of a sudden know will be one of the yellers.

After most of the people had finally made it into the door and started to crowd and huddle at the front, Ashley and I went to the bar that was on the side of the venue and sat down. We ordered Dr. Peppers, not in the mood to drink because we knew there probably would be drinking after the show. Rocket was on first. Andrew comes on first and people start cheering. He sits at his drums and the lights turn off completely. Everyone in the crowd screams. Andrew starts playing a beat. As the flashes of the many cameras start going off, you can see silhouettes of the boys walking onto the stage. Justin does a funny strut thing and Ashley and I start giggling. Andrew's still doing the beat and you can see them putting on their instruments. I loved when they did this, walked out to the beat so intensely. They did it at mostly every concert I'd seen of their and they always practiced it during sound check to get it right. I smile.

Then, Andrew falls silent. I crowd does too for a quick two seconds, then they start cheering. After an about 10 seconds, the lights flash on and the guitar of, "No One Will Ever Get Hurt," starts blasting through the speakers. The crowd starts jumping and going insane.

"_She keeps me up after late phone calls, dreamin' of her arms around me." _Nick sings into the microphone and the crowd yells along.

They sing a bunch more songs and Ashley and I sit at the bar with our sodas, screaming along to them.

They end with "Like We Used To." Everyone sings along, not too loud so they can actually here Nick though. When they left the stage, everyone cheered for a really long time.

After they were gone, there was minutes of waiting for the Maine to take the stage.

They finally come on and start with "Everything I Ask For." It sounded amazing. Kennedy singing all the backgrounds, Jared, being perfect at guitar, Garrett, looking like an adorable maniac as he jumped and flipped his head all over the stage, Pat, whipping his hair as he nailed every note, and John, sounding so good that it didn't even sound live, it sounded like it was something recorded in the studio. Ashley and I danced and sang to every song.

They were all tuning up for the next song when John starts talking.

"So, I don't know if all you know." He says into the microphone, then sips his water. "But Garrett's girlfriend is back there, and so is Justin from Rocket's girlfriend." He pointed to us and everyone turns their heads.

"So we should welcome them." He continues. "Everyone say," he rises his voice at this part, "hiiii ladies."

The crowd copies exactly what John said and cheer.

"Beautiful, beautiful. Well, how do we feel about having them join us for a little something?"

The crowd cheers super loud and he motions for us to come to the stage. As we walk over, the beginning of "Girls Do What They Want," starts playing.

Ashley and I look at each other and do a little excited squeal. Out of all the concerts I've seen of them because of Garrett, they'd never brought me on stage.

We walk on and Garrett kisses my cheek. I smile and hug him from the side, because his bass was in the way.

"So you girls know what to do right?" John asks in the mic as he runs a hand through his hair.

She and I smile and nod, really excitedly.

He hands us the mic and we hold it in the middle of us two.

John counts, "a-one, two, a-one, two, three four!"

"GIRLS DO WHAT THEY WANT!" We yell in the mic, the crowd screams along with us. We hold the microphone out to the crowd, and they do the "WHOA OH, WHOA OH."

We hold it back to us, "BOYS DO WHAT THEY CAAAAN!"

We continue that and when that part ends, she and I dance to the rest of the song. John hugs both of us and looks at the crowd.

"They were great, huh?" He asks.

The crowd cheers.

Ashley and I smile at each other and hug, then leave the stage.

Before we walk off, I give Garrett a quick kiss on the lips. A few, "Awwwwh" 's happen from the crowd. I laugh and squeeze Garrett's hand. Ashley and I walk back to our seats at the bar and listen to the rest of the set, still singing along to each song.

….

The concert is over. I'm standing with Ashley outside in the hot air, away from the crowd that is around Rocket and the rest of the guys. She and I are talking about fast food restaurants that we are in the mood for. But we have no cars so you know what that means: no driving.

"I want…." She pauses, "a whopper. Yes."

"Noooo.." I say. She looks at me. "Wendy's is better."

"True, true."

Our attention turns back to the crowd on the sidewalk who all bursted into laughs. I think it was John that said something.

We keep talking until we see a fan walking towards us. Ashley and I look at each other with a "what is this?" look.

"You're Claudia, right?" She asks, looking at me.

"…Yes." I say.

"So, you're dating Garrett."

She said it as a statement, not a question. I still say, "yes" and nod my head slowly.

"He's hot. I like him the most out of everyone. My friends' love him too. We run a fan blog about him. I got a picture with him earlier. He let me kiss his cheek. See, look."

She sticks her camera right in front of my face.

"That's nice," I try to smile and push the camera lightly out of my face.

"Yeah, well. I'm going to go talk to him more. Bye!" She runs into the crowd of girls crowding the guys again.

Ashley does a little snort and I look at her. "That was weeeird." She says.

I laugh and nod my head. "Yeah."

"So anyway."

I laugh again. "So anyway," I repeat her. "I want ice cream"

"I think there's a McDonalds that's walking distance. We could walk and get McFlurry's while the boys finish this up." She says as she points to the crowd still standing on the sidewalk.

"Let's go." I say.

We walk to McDonalds and order, than sit at a table and talk more. Even though it was about 11:25, they were still open. But, we were the only people here.

"I think Nick likes you." She says with her mouth filled with ice cream.

"Well duh. I'm his best friend." I say as I lick my spoon.

"No, I think he likes you more." She says.

I stare at the traffic light that was changing colors with no cars on the road at all. I didn't know what to say. Garrett had said this to me before also. I never realized that. We were just best friends. He thought that way too. Right?

"And why do you think that?" I ask, finally making eye contact.

"The way he looks at you, it's obvious. And on the ride to Texas while I was with Justin, he came to the back with us and was talking about you. I don't know," she shrugs. "I just think he does."

"Well I have Garrett. And he means everything to me." I say.

"Oh yeah I know. I just think that Nick does."

I try to think of something to say to change subject but nothing came to mind. Ashley and I just sit, eat our ice cream, and think the rest of the time.

When we walk back, there are only a few girls and maybe two guys left surrounded around the guys. Eric, Pat, Justin, and Kennedy are standing somewhat away from the crowd talking and leaning against the wall. We go up and join the conversation.

"We have a lot of beers in our bus." Justin says.

Kennedy says, "oh sweet, I need a drink."

Bus call was at 12:30 so we had to be back to the buses by then. We didn't have a whole lot of time but I was tired so I didn't care.

The rest of the boys finally came over as the leftover fans left to go home.

"Okay let's parrrttay." Nick says.

We all walk to the buses. Jared and John went to get the things for the little bean bag game they loved to play that had the cover of the Black and White album on them. Everyone pulls up foldy chairs and sit around with beers in hand.

I'm sitting with Garrett holding hands when someone taps me on the shoulder. I turn my head up and it's Andrew with a controller in his hand.

He clears his throat.

"Ohhh boy, I'm so ready." I say.

Garrett looks at me.

"Want to come watch or play? We're playing Fifa. I'm gonna beat everyone tonight."

He thinks about it for a second then says, "Nah, I'm going to stay. I love you."

I stand up and walk to in front of his chair. I put my arms on the arms of the chair and lean down to kiss his lips. "I love you too," I smile.

I start walking away with everyone in Rocket except Eric and hear, "Good luck Claudia!" from Garrett.

I smile and we step on the bus.

…..

So Andrew beat me…barely. I'm pretty sad about it. But he is so into it and plays it all the time. He loves soccer. That's what he wears most of the time on tour; soccer shirts from places in the world.

I walk back after we all play each other. Andrew beat Nick and Justin also. That means Nick lost the little bet.

I walk off the bus and go to sit on Garrett's lap. I sit on it sideways, hanging my legs off of the arm of the chair. I bury my head in his shoulder.

"I lost." I mumble.

He chuckles a little and sighs. "Awh, it's okay. You're still a winner to me."

I look up at his face and laugh. So cheesy. I smile and lean my head back down onto his shoulder and stay silent, just listening to the conversations happening in the circle.

We stay there until curfew, and then pack up all the chairs, but leave a few crushed up beer cans on the ground. I change into a pair of Garrett's clean boxers that I had from forever ago. I put on an "An Evening with The Maine," t-shirt that I got at one of those concerts. I go to the bathroom, pee, and throw up my hair. When I walk out, the lights are out and I can hear all the guys breathing heavy. Garrett had a light coming from his bunk so I climb in and see he's on his iPod. I push myself over him so I can be close to the wall, and he is on the outside. He holds out a headphone for me and I put it in my ear. He takes the other and puts it in his ear. He plays the song, "Two," by Ryan Adams and I pull myself closer to him as our bodies just fit together. He kisses my forehead.

"_Well, my money's no good when i'm up to no good  
>No good ever comes from it, honest."<em>

We fall asleep almost immedietly.

….

We're driving to Missouri. It's the second stop on the tour. We left Texas before I was awake and now we're stopped at a gas station somewhere in Oklahoma. My bag is stuck in the bottom of the bus so here I am, standing my pajamas in a parking lot of a gas station.

I'm tugging and I here shoes skid the ground next to me.

"Whoa, deja vu."

I look up and see it's Garrett, standing in unattractive polka dot shorts and a t-shirt. He somehow made it still look cute though.

"It's crazy that we met when you were doing the same thing as you are now." He says.

I smile. "I'm lucky that my suitcase was being stubborn that day."

He has me step aside and pulls the bag out very quickly and easily.

"Wow, that was smooth." I say.

He looks up at me and rolls his eyes. He gives me a quick kiss and we sit down on the road across from each other with my bag in the middle.

"Let's see… what should I wear today?" I say unzipping my bag.

Once my bag is open, he reaches for something and says, "this." Holding up my bra.

"Oh ha-ha very funny." I smile.

He smiles and sets it back in.

"Who knows, you look fine in anything. And I'm not the person you should be asking about clothes." He laughs.

I laugh and he and I just sit there, staring into each other's eyes.

I pick random clothes, put my bag back, and bring them in the bus to change.

All the boys are sitting on the couches in the front, talking and on computers or phones.

"There are a lot of tweets saying we did good last night. Or that John looked hot." Pat says and smiles.

Jared was the only one not on a phone or computer. He had his guitar and was just strumming things.

John was on Spotify on his computer, Kennedy and Pat were on Twitter, and Garrett was getting on Tumblr.

I go to the back and change quickly, not really caring how I ended up looking. I go the front of the bus and sit down next to Kennedy and look at his phone as he scrolls through "Mentions" on Twitter. I got bored of only seeing "kennedybrock, I love you!" or something like "it's my birthday. It would be so much better if kennedybrock wished me happy birthday..(:" so after a bunch of those, I stopped looking over his shoulder.

I pull out my phone and get on Twitter as well. I obviously didn't get "I love you Claudia!" or anything like that, but I did sometimes get fan hate.

There wasn't anything exciting on my Twitter so I stand up, hold my hand out for Garrett, and lead us to the back of the bus. We sit on a couch and I turn on the TV that's back there.

Nothing was on, except Wizards of Waverly Place on Disney Channel so….we watched that. This tour must be making me tired because once again I fell asleep with my head in his lap.

….

Rocket had just done their set. They're still out there finishing their last song that is their encore song. They sounded really good tonight. I watched every song, standing by the stage, nodding my head to the beats and singing along. I left before they got their encore to go see the Maine boys. Now they're doing their "We Like To Party" chant that they always do before they play a show.

They slap their legs and then clap.

_Slap, clap, slap, clap, slap, clap, slap, clap, slap, clap_

"_Ooh-wee, ooh-wee, ooh-wee, ooh-wee. Ooh-wee, ooh-wee, ooh-wee, ooh-wee." _They chant in unison as they continue the "slap, clap."

"_We like to party. We like, we like to party. We like to party. We like, we like to party. We like to party. We like, we like to party."_

Then, they all put their hands in the middle of the circle and say, "_oooooooh, yeah" _and lift all their arms up. I stand there smiling at them. It had been a ritual for the longest time.

"Alright show time." Jared says.

Pat drums his drumsticks against an empty equipment case really fast and they finally take the stage.

….

I watch the entire set with Nick. He came to find me on the second song and we stood, and sang, and talked.

After the show, the crowd of people that stayed to meet them wasn't as big so we had more time to hang out. Bus call/curfew was at 12:00 tonight, so we had less than the night before.

I stood with Ashley again. We haven't talked about the, "I think Nick likes you," thing any other times except for the McDonalds that night. I didn't want to talk about it, or hear about it.

"Death Cab is going to be touring soon, I so badly want to see a show." Ashley said as we stood against the wall, watching the crowds around the bands.

"Ah they are Jesus. We so need to." I said. Because of the loud music two nights in a row, my ears had been ringing the entire day and night. I usually loved the ringing after a concert, but now, it was making me have the worst headache in the world.

"I feel kind of sick. I'm going to go to the bus. Sorry, okay?" I said to her.

"Okay that's fine! Do you want me to come?" She asked.

"No, that's okay." I smile. "But can you tell Garrett, once you see him of course, that that's where I went?"

"Sure," she smiles. "Hope you feel better."

I smile and walk to the bus.

All I remember is walking up the stairs of the bus, standing there, and then, sprinting to the bathroom to puke. I did that and all I remember next was falling asleep in my clothes that smelled like cigarettes from being around smokers at the concert and sweat, from being in the hot venue for forever.


End file.
